AFTER only two sessions, a borough mending group has notched up enough fixes to gain it a place in a national monitoring group’s chart of top 10 of UK repair cafes.
Wokingham Repair Cafe has managed to achieve 10th place on the group’s website in a very short time.
In just two sessions the group has repaired 108 items; an average of 54 per session.
Maya Gheorghe, one of the Wokingham Repair Cafe organising team, said: “It’s fantastic news, and a great surprise to us all.
“When we started we knew there was an appetite for fixing things, but we didn’t really know how Wokingham would receive a repair cafe.”
Repair sharing group RepairMonitor has been tracking data from UK repair cafes to find out how many successful fixes there are and which products turn up at the cafes most often.
Vacuum cleaners appear more than any other item, followed by garden shears and table lamps, toasters, sewing machines and kettles.
Clearly people want to keep good quality things that have served them well, and are asking repair cafes to give them a new lease of life.
Of the 3,177 items taken to UK wide fixers this year, 65% have been fully repaired.
This means fewer items are going to landfill, and less money is being spent on replacing them.
“Our online repair request form is proving to be very helpful,” said Maya.
“It lets people tell us what they would like fixed, so our menders can make an assessment prior to the next session and bring with them the right tools and parts for the job.
“We’re all very pleased and rather surprised to know that we’ve already fixed enough items to appear in the UK’s top 10.
“It just shows how eco-conscious Wokingham people are, and how tired they are of having to buy things new again and again, when they’ve got perfectly good quality items that can be fixed.”
Wokingham Repair Cafe meets at All Saints Church, Norreys, on the second Saturday of the month, from 10am until 12.30pm.
The next event takes place on Saturday, June 8.
People can turn up on the day, but may find it helpful to register in advance.
For information, and to complete a repair request, visit: www.wokinghamrepaircafe.uk
